How to Add Product Images in Bulk in WooCommerce

WooCommerce has no bulk screen for product images. For a handful of products you set each image in the product editor. For many, the built-in way is a CSV import with an Images column: you list image addresses for each product, the first becomes the main image, and WooCommerce downloads them into your Media Library. A third way is to let an AI assistant find the right image for each product and show you every one before anything is added. Whichever you choose, settle two things first: that you may use the images, and that they are good enough to show.

Before you start: rights, size and names

Use only images you are allowed to use. Your own photos are safe. A supplier’s or manufacturer’s product photos are often meant for resellers, but that depends on your agreement with them, so ask if you are not sure. An image found through a search engine or on another shop’s site belongs to someone else.

Size. WooCommerce recommends uploading images of at least 800 × 800 pixels and makes the smaller sizes it needs for the shop page and thumbnails by itself. You set how wide they are, and whether thumbnails are cropped, in Appearance > Customize > WooCommerce > Product Images (WooCommerce: adding product images and galleries).

Names and alt text. Google calls alt text the most important attribute for giving an image meaning, and advises short, descriptive file names rather than names like image1.jpg. It supports JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP and a few other formats (Google Search Central: image SEO). A clear alt text also tells a visitor who uses a screen reader what the product looks like.

One product at a time, in the editor

1. Go to Products > All Products and open the product.
2. In the Product image box on the right, click Set product image, choose an image from the Media Library or upload one, and confirm.
3. For more images, click Add product gallery images in the Product gallery box, choose one or more, and click Add to gallery. Drag them into the order you want.
4. Click Update.

The main image always appears first in the gallery, so you do not add it twice. Removing an image from the gallery with the red X leaves the file in your Media Library (same page). This is fine for ten products. For four hundred it is a day’s work.

Why bulk edit does not help

The bulk edit screen in Products > All Products changes categories, tags, prices, stock, status, shipping and a few other fields on many products at once. Images are not among them (WooCommerce: bulk editing). An extension can add options to that screen, so check what your own plugins offer.

Many products: the CSV import

WooCommerce’s product importer has an Images column. You give a list of image addresses separated by commas, and the first one becomes the main image; the rest go into the gallery. External addresses are imported into the Media Library, and an image already in the library can be named by its file name (product CSV import schema).

1. Export your products, or build a sheet with one row per product and its ID or SKU, so each row finds the right product.
2. Fill the Images column with direct addresses of image files, not of web pages.
3. Go to Products > All Products and click Import at the top.
4. Choose the file, tick Update existing products, and click Continue.
5. On the column mapping screen, set every column you do not want to change to Do not import.
6. Click Run the importer and leave the page open until it finishes.

WooCommerce’s own documentation lists what goes wrong (WooCommerce: product CSV importer). Some hosts block the download, ask for a login, or return a web page instead of an image, and then that image fails; the fix is to upload it to the Media Library first or get a direct link to the file. The importer cannot set alt text. It also has no undo: the documentation advises a backup and a small test import first.

Test with one product before the whole sheet, and look at what happened to the images it already had. The Images column describes the product’s images as a list, so what you leave out of that list matters too. For the wider pros and cons of a spreadsheet round trip, see updating products with a CSV.

Asking an assistant: the StoreEdit AI way

StoreEdit AI connects Claude or ChatGPT to your shop through MCP, the standard way an AI assistant connects to another system. With StoreEdit AI Pro you can ask in plain words: “Give every mug the main image from our supplier’s product page.” The assistant finds an image address for each product and proposes it. Your shop fetches each image at that moment, checks that it really is a JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP image within the size limit, and keeps it aside, outside your Media Library. An address that does not work is answered with the product and the reason, so the assistant can try another.

In WordPress admin you then see each product with the image it has now, the image it would get, and the address that image came from, with a tick box on every row and a reminder to approve only images your shop may use. Only what you apply goes into the Media Library, and it is exactly the file you saw, with the product’s name as its title and alt text. You can also add images at the end of a gallery; an image already in the gallery is not added twice. Undo these changes puts back what each product had and removes the added image if no other product uses it.

The limits, plainly: one request takes up to 20 images. It adds images from web addresses only, so a photo on your computer still goes through the Media Library by hand. It does not create, crop or edit images, does not remove images from a gallery, and does not reorder one. The images it finds are only as good as the source you point it to, which is why you see each one first. See also undoing a bulk edit and connecting Claude to WooCommerce.

Which way to choose

• A few products, your own photos: the editor.
• Hundreds of products with known image addresses in a sheet: the CSV import, after a backup and a one-row test.
• Hundreds of products where someone has to find the right image for each one: an assistant, with every image shown to you before it is added.

Questions

Which image becomes the main one in a CSV import?

The first address in the Images column. The others go into the gallery.

Can I bulk add alt text to product images?

Not with the core CSV importer, which cannot set alt text. You can type it in the Media Library one image at a time, or use a tool that sets it when it adds the image.

Why did some images not import?

Usually the address points to a web page rather than the file, or the server that holds it refuses the download. Open the address in a browser: it should show only the image.

Can I use images from my supplier’s website?

Only if your agreement with the supplier allows it. Ask them when in doubt; many give resellers a folder of product photos for exactly this.